The Pilot Projects Program is the responsibility of the Deputy Director. Once a year, an announcement will be made regarding the availability of funding; in addition, special requests for applications addressing targeted research areas may be issued. Center members and others outside the Center who wish to develop collaborations with Center members will be eligible to apply. Proposals will be reviewed by scientists not competing for pilot project funding. These reviews will be discussed by the Center?s Internal Advisory Committee, which will make final decisions. Recipients will be required to write annual progress reports, and will be contacted beyond the end of the funding to document publications, grants, and collaborations that resulted from the pilot project. Pilot Project proposals will initially be reviewed by the Scientific Coordinator, Center Director, and the Deputy Director to determine whether they are appropriate to undergo the full review. Three reviewers will score each proposal and write a brief critique. Reviewers from affiliates of the Center, Center members not submitting a proposal, and scientists outside the Center will be sought for this purpose. External Advisory Committee members may be approached to review or suggest possible reviewers for the proposals once they have been received. The reviews will be completed within one month of receipt. All appropriate proposals will be scored for 1) relevance to the Center?s mission, 2) likelihood to result in a successfully funded application, 3) innovation, 4) appropriateness of laboratory and statistical methods and 5) collaborations within or among the Research Cores (for Center members) or with the Research Cores (for non-members). The scores will be tabulated by the Scientific Coordinator and the scores and critiques will be provided to the Internal Advisory Committee, which will discuss the projects and make the final funding decision. During its deliberations, the Internal Advisory Committee may take other considerations into account, besides the formal review criteria. These may include: impact on the junior investigator?s career development, utilization of the Facility Cores, potential impact on the Center as a whole, or other concerns.